"Worried Democrats courting elderly voters as midterm elections near," reads a headline in The Washington Post. It's long been clear that if Democrats had been less afraid, they'd have less to be afraid of now.
Case in point was the brawl over health care, which a timid President Obama let go on and on in a fruitless quest for Republican support.

Clarence the angel has a tough job in "It's a Wonderful Life." He must show the suicidal George Bailey what terrible things would have happened had he not been born. Two prominent economists are playing Clarence to the multitudes who believe that forceful government intervention during the financial meltdown should never have been.

The Drudge Report headline declaring that "Murdoch Gives $1 Million to Haley Barbour" is not technically accurate. In fact, News Corporation (full disclosure: I'm a contributor to Fox News) gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, of which Barbour is the chair. But the headline caught my attention because if there's one Republican I'm worried about going into what is sure to be a tough re-election campaign in 2012, it is Haley Barbour.

The JetBlue flight attendant who theatrically quit his job by cursing out a "rude" passenger and exiting via an emergency slide has become a working-class hero to many. But Steven Slater's story didn't hold up for long. It now appears that the gash allegedly caused by someone slamming an overhead bin into his head was there before the flight. Slater was acting like a jerk long before takeoff, according to recent reports.

We are told hourly that our national mood grows even sourer. Referring to the meltdown of the flight attendant who, after allegedly enduring abuse from belligerent passengers, lost his temper and exited the aircraft by the emergency chute, Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart quipped: "I think it's a 'JetBlue' election. Everyone is frustrated, and everyone is headed for the emergency exit."

My friend Kath would have turned 60 this week.
I only know that because when she was in the hospital last spring, they kept asking for her date of birth before administering medicine, and the answer was 8-12-50. The 8-12 I knew. But to see her, she didn't even look 50, much less 59.